E&E Exchange

I thought they had been using "renewable" bottles for over 100 years now?

I think they called them glass bottles back in the day. You even had three main renewable/recycling choices to work with too! You could clean them and re use them or melt them down or crush them into a inert sand like material that had a unlimited number of practical applications.

You could also snap the end off one and use it in a bar fight if needed whereas now a days trying to look threatening while doing your best to beat someone down with a empty plastic bottle just doesn't work out right.

(Boink, Boink, Boink. Stop laughing at me dammit!)

I'll second you on the glass.

These alternatives, like biofuels, will divert agricultural land that is needed for food.

There's nothing sustainable about that. Better to use sand to make a bottle....

Agreed, I think drinks taste better in glass too. Unfortunately, plastic is better for the manufacturer on all sides (cost, transport, integrity). And this movement for new renewable materials is also economically driven.

Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on the implications), cellulosic crops are at least more land efficient than their corn-based counterparts, so the footprint may be more manageable.

How are they doing with the recycled plastic option? Everyone is recycling now, so I would expect less interest in different raw materials and processes to make new plastic bottles, and more advances in the recycling of existing beverage containers instead... ??? Can recycled PET not be used to make another bottle, if it can't be reused???

From what I understand, using recycled plastic material is more expensive than using virgin resins for the manufacturer, and it requires a lot more processing to recycle plastic than glass or metal. Post-consumer PET resins are also more easily made into fiber for polyester fabrics than into bottle. Thus, that side of industry has less concern for the recycling end (except as a means to promote more plastic bottle sales).

Also, I believe recycling rates for plastics are still well below 50%, definitely not a majority. But since plastics are not a natural resource like metal, its really more of a landfill waste concern than anything else.

"With over a 100 billion plastic bottles produced each year"......they can reuse them, they do it Germany. The bottles are real thick and sturdy over there, and there is not one old plastic bottle on the streets anywhere, that stuff is worth money at the supermarket, you put it all in the machine in the corner and get credit for the store.....how else is a bum gonna support their alcohol problem without collecting bottles?

Not really sure what the carbon offset is for smelting glass is, but glass is definately the go though. In Thailand you buy a coke that is in a bottle that had been around for 12 years (they are dated), and they just sterilize them and fill em up again. I didnt catch a single disease either.....pretty stoked. If they can do it, anyone can do it!

Who cares about renewable bottles? Renewable contents--now we're talking!

How about healthy contents?

What I want is my own carbonation machine with a wide variety of syrups. Diet cola, lemonade, ginger beer, orange, etc. No bottles needed. Reusable syrup and CO2 containers. Compact design. Soda Stream makes one, but the prices are at no savings. I want savings as well. Would save a lot of hauling of bottles, energy saved in transport, new bottles, aluminum cans etc. I can even design my own fruit syrups and carbonate them. Any help with sources would be appreciated. I have not searched yet. Possibly a good business opportunity for distributors at all levels!

A quick search showed plenty of how to info that was very economical. I think I will go for it in the near future. For economic, convenience, and even green reasons. instructables.com has a nice article, but there is plenty of info out there. Involves a small CO2 tank, regulator, tubing etc. Search under home carbonation.